Flipped
by sarahwicz
Summary: James Potter. King of Hogwarts and his family. All he needs is an epic adventure like the ones his dad tells. Fortunately, a pretty American exchange student has just major crisis he needs but in the process could flip the world upside down and bring an era Voldemort couldn't even imagine. Are James and MJ really ready for the Hunters?
1. Prologue: Harry

_Bad things happen in threes. So far in this peaceful generation however, the only thing James and the rest of the family have to worry about is who is king of the school and the dating scene. Now in his sixth year, an exchange student has come into James' life that could flip all of their lives upside down and bring an era Voldemort couldn't even imagine. _

_Author's Note: This is the first of a trilogy. This first story concentrates on James and Mindy. The second will be of course on the fabulous trio that is Rose, Al, and Scorp. The last will tie things together. Mostly fun times in the first two of course. Yes I know the picture is crap, anyone who wants to design one for me can contact me and be awesomely mentioned and loved forever :) _

Prologue: Harry

Ask any person that has lived in Godric's Hollow more than 20 years and they would say that it used to be such a peaceful neighborhood. Really it still was, but occasionally there are noises. These noises are impossible to explain as they seem to come from thin air and from one particular part of the town. But if you just avoided that area, why this was still such a nice place to live.

Harry Potter certainly thought so after the war. There was a definite reason why many wizarding families happen to like this part of England. It was quiet and out of the way just in case of underage magic. It provided a nice mix of muggles and wizards so that kids would grow up properly and without prejudice. The weather wasn't too English and rainy. And to top it off, Potter Cottage already had all the charms needed to remain hidden. It had been a difficult process dealing with where his parents died and all, but Ginny was right when she said that the world needed a beacon of hope, a rebirth from the ashes. In this particular case, it had been quite literal. The cottage was almost identical on the outside as it had been when James and Lily were beginning their lives. However, with the family growing to an unusual size quite quickly, some consideration was taken on the inside and now Potter Cottage could now be considered more a Manor that was needed desperately on the holidays.

The famous Mr. Potter did love his new house and his wonderful family, but there were days when he almost wished Shacklebolt chained him to his desk to finish his paperwork so that he would have an excuse to miss the upcoming battle that was the first day of school. On this fateful day, he sat quietly at the kitchen table and enjoyed the paper which was surprisingly nonbiased after the war. A whole table of food sat in front of him that Ginny made last night to avoid the morning rush and he even swore that he could hear a bird singing though really there had been none living nearby since last summer's Troll Incident. Still, it was quiet enough to harbor hope that maybe this year; everything would go exactly the way that he wanted.

Unfortunately his kids seem to channel his knack for getting into trouble.

"ALBUS, IF YOU DO NOT GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED, I AM DONE. I WILL GIVE YOU TO AUNT HERMIONE TO BE LECTURED FOR A YEAR."

Harry flinched hearing his wife's _beautiful_ voice that was cheerfully persuading her son to get ready for the train. James and Lily seemed to follow in his footsteps and were willing to get up at any time. On the other hand, Ginny and Al always seemed to compete in the best sloth impersonation competition. Unfortunately, when Ginny couldn't sleep in, there was no chance that she was going to let one of her sons get what she craved.

"Morning dad!" called a soft voice just a second before Lily Luna bounced into the kitchen and stole a piece of bacon from Harry plate while she gave him a kiss on the cheek. She considered the rest of the bacon for a moment before sitting down at her usual place. The little 13 year old Gryffindor was turning into a woman that was as feisty as her mother. It was almost surprising she was down here instead of irritating James.

He glanced up from his paper to give her a smile and held his finger over his mouth. "Let's not remind the rest of them that we're down here yet, okay?" he said in a soft whisper. His daughter only snorted and started to fill a plate up with food that Ginny made rivaling her own mother's. That was when Harry got a good look at what she was wearing; a skirt that seemed a little too short and a shirt that was a little too tight for a girl about to enter her 3rd year. "Lily, your mom does know you're wearing that correct? Do I need to tell you to get the robes on early?"

Lily only paused in her gathering to roll her eyes and whispered back, "Dad, you know as well as I do that the only boy who is gonna get me has to keep up with me on a broomstick and put up with our family of very _manly_ men. Neither of which seems very likely at 13. Duh." She picked up her plate and flew out of the kitchen once again; hopefully to get her truck that hopefully didn't have any blackmail material in it. Hopefully.

There was more pounding on the steps. That only meant one thing. Harry hid his plate right before James strolled into the room. He fell into his seat and starting shoveling into the mound of pancakes that had supposedly been for everyone. Harry didn't even want to look at the insane amount of food James was inhaling, but he was the head Auror. He had seen worse things. Granted, not by much but James was his own son that had to count for something. He cleared his throat, "Er, James…"

"Dad! Hey, you're up! Listen, my truck is already downstairs and ready to go. No need for any last minute inspections. If I forgot something I'll just owl you!" James grinned. It was identical to another James Harry had seen in a pensive long ago right before he did something incredibly stupid.

Harry pushed back the memories of last year when a few not so legal things made it into James' trunk and instead just said, "I know that your hair is bad, trust me I really do, but don't make it worse by adding egg."

James looked slightly confused before reaching up and touching his messy locks he inherited from his father with the trademark auburn color that marked him half Weasly. Sure enough, a piece of scrambled egg was dangling in the middle of his forehead. "Whoops," he muttered, "I just miss mom's food when I'm gone." Somehow, he also missed the egg hanging on the frame of his glasses, but at this point it was a lost cause.

"That's a very nice sentiment dear, but really, Claire will really have a cow if she sees what her boyfriend has resorted to," announced Ginny as she marched into the kitchen and right up to Harry before whispering in a not so quiet voice, "It's your turn next year, don't forget it." After James' first year, the two had realized that they needed to take turns for being in charge on the first day of school. That way there would still be a sane person left to answer any police questions. Surprisingly, this tactic did come in handy two years ago in what the kids were calling The Inside Job.

Harry resisted the urge to groan. Ginny smiled (it really only had a hint of evil in it) and went into the foyer to start counting the different pieces of luggage. They seemed to multiply each year. James and Harry stared after her then at each other. James ran his hand though his hair and simply said, "Dad, you are the bravest man I know."

Somehow, the whole fighting Voldemort and winning thing had stopped impressing the three after James turned about 5. Yet, maybe there was a sign of hope if they recognized how difficult they made their parents' lives. They were growing up now. This had to be the maturing thing that all the other parents were talking about. So Harry simply said, "James, you know the usual rules for public outings with the family. Now go get ready, and remember no kidnapping attempts this year."

"But food…"

"But your mom's temper is about to explode. Go." Harry resisted the strong urge to laugh at his oldest son looking at the food with a longing that his girlfriend didn't even bring out in him. Of course, that could just be normal; Harry really didn't have a sense of what a normal relationship entailed. But finally, the wrath of Ginny outweighed any of the food left on the table and James got up dragging his feet as he went to the fireplace.

Harry conceded defeat and put down the newspaper to help out his wife. He put together a small plate with a variety of food before he stood up stretching unconsciously rubbing his forehead where the famous scar had faded to a pale pinkish color that only stood out when he got a tan. He mindlessly gathered all the dishes together and put them in the sink (the years of practice with the Dursleys were good for something) then waved his wand. A soapy sponge sprang from the counter and began to clean up. He grinned; that spell could have saved him hours of picking up after Dudley when he was little. Now, his kids just took it for granted. Of course he would never wish that on his kids. Most of the time.

Somehow the walk to the fireplace required every ounce of courage that Harry had left. He held his hands up to his face right before going in but was pleasantly surprised when nothing exploded this time. Instead, Ginny was busying straightening James up while Lily poked the owls one at a time and Al just looked miserable sitting on top of his trunk.

He slid over to Al and handed him the plate of food that was from the kitchen. Al gave his dad a grateful look before starting on it with a little less gusto then James. Harry couldn't help but smile; Albus had to be the most like him. Sure, part of it was the looks with the messy black hair, green eyes (though without the curse of bad eye sight), and slight build but Harry knew it was something more. Al reminded him so much of himself when he was going through Hogwarts and was perhaps the kid that Harry could have been if other things hadn't gotten in the way. This was a little scary considering Al was entering his 5th year as a Gryffindor and Harry still cringed remembering his emo year. Harry reached over to mess up Al's hair even further than it already was and Al grumpily sat there taking it. He would be alright, Harry knew that, but a dad could worry.

"Come on, let's go, your aunt and uncle are probably already there," said Ginny ushering her wayward children to the fireplace. She watched each like a hawk as they each took their own trunks, threw the powder in, and shouted, "King's Cross!" Right before she grabbed her own bit of floo powder, Harry crept up behind her and spun her around then gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "Getting better at that, Mr. Potter," Ginny laughed and kiss him back quickly on the lips.

"I've had a few years of experience, Mrs. Potter. And tonight is the first night we've had completely alone all summer. I mean, I'm just saying…"

"That you have to go to work tomorrow and I have to edit the edit on my piece that's due at 8am sharp," Ginny sighed and turned around.

"Oh come on, can't we just say we saved the world so they should give us a break?"

Ginny snorted and threw the powder on the flames. Right before stepping in, she faced Harry and said, "I think I may have an hour or two for the savior tonight." She winked and stepped into the flames.

Harry grinned. Merlin's beard, he loved her.

A few minutes later and the Potter caravan had finally gone through the brick wall. The ever elegant Hogwarts Express was as awe inspiring as usual, at least to Harry. For the kids, it was business as usual. James immediately started looking for Claire while Lily had already begun talking to some boys who seemed to be enjoying the view a little too much. But before Harry could intervene, someone shouted, "HARRY. IT'S BEEN FOREVER."

Immediately, Harry turned and found the rest of the Weasley/Potter hoard. Ron was waving and clearly the one who had called out as Hermione was busy with Hugo who would have liked nothing more to avoid his fussy mother's kisses. The rest of the family was scattered down the platform finding their respectful year. In fact, James and Fred had already found each other. "Bye dad," James said walking over to Harry and stuck out his hand. Harry snorted and took the hand which then turned into an embrace (only made slightly awkward by the fact that James was a solid 4 inches taller than Harry at this point). As they let go, James only slightly muttered, "Dad…"

"Do I really need to go on my speech about loving the family you have and all that?" Harry said. James shook his head quickly before Harry said, "Good, now have fun and avoid a criminal record. They tend to frown on that stuff when they are looking at your application to the Auror department." Then James was off to say bye to his mother and sprinted to catch up with Fred.

"They look like they're up to something already," Ron grumbled. Harry only snorted. Apparently Rose had made her way over with her father and was already informing Al on all the drama he missed. Al was looking very, very tired. "Look mate," Ron started, "That paperwork…"

"Will be done by tomorrow morning. That's great, thanks Ron! You know Kingsley has really been bugging me for it. Thank God you are such a great friend and get everything done on time."

Ron frowned before shrugging, "Eh, worth a shot." Al and Rose waved over at the two of them before heading over to the train to find a spot. Lily was already gone. Harry ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. Days like today made him wish he could go back and be a normal student for once at Hogwarts with no problems. "Harry, you know that if we went back as normal students, we would be extremely bored," Ron said then sighed as well.

"Trelawney gave you some mind reading tips?"

"Nah, it's all Hermione. She had to talk me out of sneaking in somehow. You would think that Miss Brainiac would want to go back to school." As if suddenly knowing she was being talked about, Hermione looked up from her conversation with Ginny and glared over at the two of them. Suddenly, Harry really did feel like he was back at Hogwarts and just forgotten to do a Potions essay. "Still, ten galleons James and Fred will wind up getting into some major trouble this year with that exchange student."

Harry frowned at Ron before turning his attention back to the train and waving at Lily who was hanging out of the window. "Now what makes you say that?" he asked out of the side of his mouth.

Ron grinned at Hugo and stuck his tongue out just to make Hugo feel even more embarrassed. He said, "I swear my new goal in life is to give Hugo the same complex Fred and George gave me. Seriously though, the boys are in the same year as her and she's pretty which means Fred will be all over that. Plus, James loves being the middle of things and with her, this opens up the whole possibility of solving the Witch Hunter problem…"

"He isn't going to solve it," Harry said a little too loudly. Thankfully, the train chose that moment to whistle and begin to move. Harry ran his hand through his hair once more and pinched his nose, "That particular problem is for the Department of Magic in America. Across the ocean. And she isn't even a part of it, her parents are. There's no way she could ever bring that problem to James. Besides, she's in Ravenclaw according to McGonagall. James doesn't even touch books as his own personal religion. There's no way that they'll even be connected."

Ron shrugged, "Don't know mate. All I'm thinking is that somehow we're going to know what it felt like being the Order of the Phoenix trying to watch over us. I have a feeling that it wasn't entirely sunshine and unicorns all the time."

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but Hermione and Ginny had begun walking over and there was no way he was going to get Ginny worrying about James more than she already did. Besides, Harry had fought so hard as a teenager to get life in the wizarding world back to normal for everyone else. It was only fair that his kids only had to worry about the normal things in life like pranks and boys. Unfortunately, there was a nagging voice at the back of his head reminding him that Potters always managed to find themselves in trouble. No, it wouldn't be a problem during this school year. It couldn't be. Harry ran his fingers through his hair once again, frustrated that he was actually beginning to worry about this. Unfortunately, Ron sometimes had a surprising talent for predicting the future whether he was serious or not.

Nah, nothing would happen. Still a letter to James couldn't hurt. First thing on his to do list tomorrow. After he spent some time with Ginny. And he did all of his paper work. And met with Teddy about the proposal plans. James would be fine. Potters were always curious. In fact a letter might just make him more nosy. "Merlin's beard, Ron," Harry groaned.

"I know," Ron said with sympathy, "It sucks to be the adults now. It's all up to them." And strangely, Harry knew that Ron was right.

It was their turn.


	2. Chapter 1: James

_faAuthor's Note: Some people liked my story, yay! Let's keep going shall we. I love putting characters in awkward situations. Also, James is a tad of a douche bag. Not gonna lie, it was quite fun to write. Also, I'm going to just start now. _

Chapter 1: In Which James Is Back to Normal

James took only one glance outside to notice that Uncle Ron was bugging his dad again before turning his attention to the apartment that he and his friends miraculously got to themselves. Seriously, with the amount of people having babies after the war, you would think that the train could gain a few more cars and still not have any seats open. As it was, he still chuckled at the hopeless first years wondering aimlessly up and down the corridor trying to find people that didn't look too intimidating to sit with. Personally, he had no sympathy for them. James had even known people as a first year going into Hogwarts and they still wouldn't let him sit with them. They called it a 'Rite of Passage' to 'Be Awkward With People You Probably Will Never Speak To Again.' And it was true.

"James," Fred drawled out as long as possible hoping to get his cousin's attention. It worked; the car wasn't large enough for anything to be ignored for too long.

"What?"

"You seem to be missing the 5th limb that you call Claire Peterson. What, did ya piss her off again in some fashion that only girls seem to get?"

James ran his hand through his hair and didn't answer. Sure, Fred was right; Claire had only seen him long enough to give him a glare and flouncing off again with some of her other friends in the Gryffindor house that seemed to always take priority over the so called boyfriend of a year. But even if that was all true, there was no way in hell that he was going to give Fred that satisfaction. Again. Well, at least not this early in the school year, it hadn't even officially started yet.

Thankfully, the door crashed open and Zachary White came sprinting in before quickly shutting the door closed behind him. "Little sister does not believe in the Rite of Passage. I had to run to avoid her following me. That's not mean right? I mean, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh Merlin, I'm a horrible person aren't I?" Zach groaned as he finished his rant and slid down on the chair next to James. Somehow, in spite of his worrying and knack for feeling extremely guilty about everything, Zach had become best friends with Fred and James in their first year and now the three were inseparable.

"Nah, you aren't. That's exactly what I did with Roxy and my dad congratulated me," Fred reassured Zach before starting to search through his bag. James just looked out the window at the London countryside that had just started. Claire really knew how to ruin the whole first day of school excitement.

"I guess that's fine then," Zach muttered but his real attention was focused on the bag that Fred seemed so interested in and it seemed all guilt was forgotten. "Oi, what's in the bag? How many prototypes did your dad get you to bring this time?" Guilt trips aside, Zach was excellent in taking what Fred's dad gave them and turning the props into memorable pranks. He was also good in making up alibis which meant Fred and James had at least twice as many detentions on record than he did.

James perked up at the mention of the prototypes. Yes, Claire was doing the stupid girl stuff again, but Fred always managed to pull something out that would make him feel better. Unfortunately, Fred stopped digging and shook his head regretfully, "Nah, no prototypes. Dad is going retro this year and bringing back some of the pranks that he and Uncle Fred made when they first opened the shop. I believe his exact words were, 'It's time for you to grow up son, and create some pranks on your own. And remember, if they're any good, let me know and I'll help you turn a profit.' Or something to that effect."

James grinned, "Sounds like a challenge issued to me."

"Exactly," said Fred while Zach only rolled his eyes. James punched Zach on the arm and laughed. Zach knew what he was getting into remaining friends with them for so long. Why, after the first week of school of their first year, the three of them had managed 10 detentions between them. James didn't even feel sorry; dad had to have known that naming him after two Marauders and being the grandson of one of them could only mean a challenge issued for James to get in as much trouble as possible. He was pretty sure his dad approved too; he could have sworn that his dad had seen him take the Marauder Map, yet to this day he still hadn't asked for it back.

Zach sighed and said, "Fine, as long as we do something to get that freaking Lacey chick in Slytherin back for last year. I can't stand that snobby nose brat anymore."

"Then why the heck did you ask her out right before summer started? Oi that hurt!" James exclaimed when it was his turn to get punched back by Zach. Fred began to crack up and Zach took the high road by simply stuffing his mouth with a chocolate frog. James glared at the two of them, took out some Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from his bag, and began pelting his two friends with them. Oh, train rides; easily the best place to annoy your friend for hours on end.

Unfortunately, the quiet chaos that was their cabin didn't last for long. The door slid open once again to reveal Al standing there still looking a little tired. "Hey James," he said sounding like the zombie he was apparently trying to impersonate.

James grinned, "What, still exhausted after mom's beautiful wakeup call this morning?"

"Well I was feeling nice and was going to tell you what robes of yours that I sabotaged but I think I'm gonna pass on that," Al said absentmindedly while looking into the corridor intently. James scowled but said nothing. His mom and dad were convinced that Al was such a golden boy, did no wrong, and James was forever torturing Al for no reason. The real situation was a prank war that stretched all the way back to the time when Al first learned how to talk. Now James was convinced that Al could get away with anything and probably should have been in Slytherin.

While Fred and Zach tried not to laugh at James' unfortunate situation, Al continued, "What I really came here to tell you was that Claire was on her way over here. She looked calm, not sure if that's good or bad. Also, Fred, the odds on them breaking up before Christmas according to Lily has gone to 7:1 so if you wanted to change you have to do it quickly."

"Fred…"

"James, it's easy money and you know your sister runs a mean betting pool."

James couldn't even retaliate since it was so true. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that he was physically not allowed to do so, he would even bet on this relationship. To last of course. He didn't want to break up with Claire. Of course not, she was just… awesome. Really awesome. "Fine," he groaned and leaned back in his seat, "I can deal with that. I am James fricking Potter, I got this. Any other news?"

"Just Rose and Scorpius battling again. This time it was wizard chess. It ended in a draw unfortunately. Now I'm going to leave before the fireworks show," Al waved and darted off once again, hopefully to find Rose before she killed the only reason why Al had a slim chance in Potions class. Seriously, the Potters just couldn't hold their own in that class. It was like it was cursed. Now that was a thought. James started, "Hey guys, what if…"

"James."

He took a huge breath before standing up and sighing, "Claire. Can we just get this over with?" Already he could tell that this was going to be another annoying and pointless 'discussion.' The blonde girl certainly looked like she was ready for a fight. Her hands were stuck on her hips and she stared directly into his eyes (quite unusual for a girl since James was over the 6 foot mark already but somehow Claire managed to keep a constant 2 inches behind him).

Claire sniffed and glanced over to Zach who had the good sense to jump (his feet quite literally left the ground) to move over and sit next to Fred. She promptly sat down and patted the seat beside her. "Come on James," she said with a small smile that didn't quite change the look in her eyes, "We aren't first years. I'm not going to kill you or yell or anything that drastic."

James narrowed his eyes and slowly sat next to her. Immediately, she scooted closer and put her hand on his leg. Okay, what was her motive? He was James Potter; self-proclaimed co-King of Hogwarts (had to give props to his cousin and his best friend). He could figure this out and come up with something extremely clever to say. "Hrm… okay," he muttered. Yes, that was perfect. Exactly what needed to happen. Idiot.

"Next time, make sure to at least try to find me. It's like you didn't even miss me this summer."

"Now hold on, I did try to find you! By the time I did you were surrounded by those wh…" he cut off abruptly when her hand tightened enough to where he could feel nails through his jeans, "friends of yours. Then you just walked away!"

"Well, I guess both sides are to blame then," she said and settled back into the seat. James opened his mouth but then seeing the look on her face closed it. Claire really was an awesome girl and when they were a couple in a group of friends, it was great and they got along fine. It was the alone part that they seemed to have issues with. She just liked picking fights. But on the bright side, he didn't have to worry about a date to the annual Yule Ball plus the making up after fights was really so choice. It was just too much effort to care enough to break it off.

She kissed him on the cheek and turned to the other two, "Now that that's settled, have you boys heard the biggest confirmed rumor on the train?" Gotta love Claire, always ahead on the gossip.

All three boys shook their heads so she continued, "We're having an American exchange student come to Hogwarts. Apparently she's a 6th year and I've heard that she's a Ravenclaw. Unfortunately, seems as though she didn't come on the train this year."

"Whoa," said Fred holding his hands up, "You mean to tell me we finally have something interesting happen in our school and she's not even in fricking Gryffindor? Blimey, that sucks."

Zach snorted, "Looks like you'll actually be going into the library this year Fred. Gotta meet her somehow." Fred nodded distractedly but was already looking off into the distance thinking of a plan. James was just a little bit envious, but it was going to be fun trying to get the new girl to like Fred.

Claire nodded with a pout, "I know; I really did want to be friends with her but I might not even see her! Well, I guess we'll see what classes she's taking." She turned to James once more and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. She whispered to him, "Listen love, I promised Beth I would sit with her for the rest of the train ride. You know how she is after Fred dumped her last year."

"But I thought she dumped…"

She cut him off with another kiss, "Anyway, I was thinking after the feast, we could go to the Room of Requirement for a little bit to make up for lost time over the summer. Sound good?"

James grinned, "Oh yes please."

She smiled and got up. "See you two later," she said and waved to Fred and Zach who didn't even bother responding. She rolled her eyes and left clicking the door slightly harder than normal. Oh God, she was hot. Why was he upset at her?

James glared at Zach and Fred, "You guys really need to start pretending to like her better. She is my girlfriend."

Zach shrugged, "She's hot and you're famous, well by association at least. I don't know if I would actually call that a relationship. More like a natural chain of events."

He paused trying to thinking of a good comeback. None came to mind. "Well, she is hot and tonight is going to be awesome." James and Zach stared at each other than started to laugh. At least Zach could call them like he saw them. James always felt that extra 'Potter Parent Pressure' that came from having a famous dad and mom. If having a hot girlfriend while being extremely popular from pranks wasn't going to cut it, then really what was?

"Guys I think we are missing a very crucial point in this conversation," Fred said after being very uncharacteristically quiet.

"What?" James and Zach said almost simultaneously. They took one look at each other and cracked up again.

Fred ignored them and said, "There is a hot, American girl at Hogwarts and I have yet to get a date with her."

"No one said hot."

"Shut it Zach."

James grinned, "You know the best way to go about this is to just ask her."

Fred nodded, "Yeah, but knowing her name would be nice. Not required, of course, still it would make things a little bit less awkward."

"McGonagall might introduce her at the Feast," said Zach but his attention was now turned to the chocolate frog card he was now reading. It was Harry Potter looking rather embarrassed in his picture. Figures; James would kill to be on that card but his dad didn't even want it. Seriously, Al and dad were mental. If you had the fame, why not use it to your advantage instead of letting it control you?

"Doubt it, she's very much a no-special-treatment person," muttered James. He knew for a fact that McGonagall found most of their pranks hilarious. Why she felt the need to write to his father and give him numerous detentions when she knew that nothing was going to change was beyond him.

"Just because she doesn't cater to your big head doesn't mean she won't introduce Miss USA. It might make everyone feel less awkward introducing themselves if they already know why she's here." Zach added helpfully and somewhat muffled. A leg was hanging out of his mouth.

James glared once more at Zach, "You just love tearing me down today."

"I'm your friend; it's my job to make sure your head stays deflated enough so that you can still hear all the little people," Zach pointed out and once again James had to keep himself from laughing. He was mad at Zach, mad. Nope, he just couldn't do it. Especially when he knew Zach was speaking the truth. Oh well, he couldn't help that everyone loved him so much. Natural charm, must be genetic.

Fred cleared his throat, "Oi, you guys are going to stop fighting and come up with 5 plans each on how I am going to ask this mysterious girl out by the time we get to Hogwarts. Go."

"Not happening."

"Nope."

"Fine, I hope you choke on all the chocolate frogs you're eating," Fred said. The three boys looked at each other and started to chuckle again. This is exactly what James missed over the summer. There was no one to compete. There weren't any disapproving parents (though to be fair, his parents were pretty lax on most everything). It was just him and his friends for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts.

A few hours and a quick robe change later, the three stepped off the train onto the platform. James smiled and took in all the chaos. He waved to Hagrid but made sure to usher Fred and Zach away quickly. Hagrid had seen him grow up which was great because he introduced the Potter kids to almost every type of magical creature to the point where James got an O on the O.W.L. without even trying. On the flip side, he was rather over protective and could get a little long winded even though he had just seen James a few weeks ago. Seriously, people in his family and family friends needed to get their sense of time adjusted.

His little reverie was interrupted when someone pushed by abruptly knocking James away from the train. "Hey watch it," he muttered.

Unfortunately it was Rose who looked furious. She turned on him and said (in a strained but controlled voice of course), "James Sirius Potter, do not even start with me. Al just invited Scorpius to sit in our carriage. Scorpius, of all people! And he had the nerve to say yes!"

"Erm, you can always sit with us?" James asked apprehensively hoping that it would calm her down a little.

Rose's eyes widened and she opened her mouth, her finger pointed straight at James but something seemed to snap in her and she deflated. Her finger went back down and she turned walking away from them. "Thanks," she called, "But I have other friends besides family members in Ravenclaw as hard as that is to believe." And with that, she was gone.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and James turned his head to find Fred shaking his head. "Mate, just let her go so we have a shot at getting a carriage to ourselves." James sighed and nodded.

The three went to the carriages that were still supposedly pulled by threstrals (James was almost disappointed he hadn't seen a death yet and he was already a 6th year). Not surprisingly, most of the girls (and quite a few boys) swarming the platform from 2nd year all the way to 7th tried to talk to the three of them asking about anything from new ideas for disrupting the school to party invitations. James deflected most of them with a wave and a grin. Sure, he was popular his first year for his parents. By this point though, it was all him. It was quite an accomplishment to be this notorious at Hogwarts. At least, he thought so.

Zach could take his inflated head opinion and shove it up his ass.

The carriage ride went rather slowly in his opinion. By the time the 6th year rolled around for anyone, this whole thing was quite routine. He looked out the window and saw the outline of the castle looming closer and closer. Even though it wasn't impressive anymore, it certainly had the feeling of home. James couldn't help feeling a little disheartened though. His time was almost done and yet he was still just a normal student. Nothing happened anymore. It was just the normal day to day stuff that anyone could do. Where were the challenges and the life or death situations that he had heard about growing up?

The threstrals brought the carriage to a smooth stop and the doors released all of the Hogwarts students out. The crowd pushed and pulled in all directions but the general direction was always up towards the giant doors that marked the beginning of the school year. James passed through the entrance with everyone else and walked into the Great Hall that was decorated with gusto like it always was.

He risked a glance over at the Ravenclaw table but if Miss USA had been sitting there before the rest of the students, she was blended in now with the crowd of students attempting to find seats with their friends. James poked Zach in the arm as they sat down towards the front of the hall and said, "10 sickles that McGonagall doesn't introduce Miss USA to everyone."

Zach snorted, "You're on."

Fred laughed, "Zach, you are totally going to win. James always loses. Now help me with this." Since there wasn't any food yet, Fred had taken it upon himself to steal all of the goblets he could reach and begin stacking up a huge pyramid that currently had four levels already. James and Zach both grinned and immediately began levitating more goblets over to their wonderful creation.

They had just finished a 7th level when McGonagall called out, "Silence please. The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin."

Unfortunately, James had taken this particular moment to shove Zach particularly hard after an ill-timed joke. James eyes widened as he watched the scene in slow motion. Zach began falling forward and put his arm out to brace himself. His arm happened to land right where the pyramid was built. The whole creation swayed away then towards them. Maybe, thought James, they would get lucky and it would stay still. Maybe they could have a normal start of the school year….

And with a crash, all the goblets fell onto the table and rolled onto the floor just as the first years walked into the door.

For a moment, the only noise that could be heard was the sound of metal ringing around the hall. Then, a slow clap started from further down the Gryffindor table (had to be Al, the little traitor) and within seconds, the entire hall erupted into applause. Fred and James looked at each other and James smirked. Really, there was only one thing to do in this situation.

The two cousins stood up on the table and began to bow. The applause just got louder. The only people seemingly not enjoying themselves in the whole situation were Zach and their beautiful Headmistress. Zach looked very convincingly bored trying to get out of a detention that was sure to be coming. McGonagall pursed her lips but just calmly said, "Enough, the sorting ceremony will now begin."

Immediately the entire Hall went silent and James and Fred sat back down. There were enough stories from the war about McGonagall that had all the student population in awe and terrified of her at the same time. If she wanted silence, she was going to get it. The only thing that could be heard in the Great Hall now was the first years' feet as they walked up to their fate.

Zach raised his eyebrows at the two of them. "You, my friends, are screwed," he whispered.

Fred responded, "Shut it Zach." James just put his head down. Well, his mom couldn't be that angry. After all, dad just said no illegal activity. Disruptions should be okay. If his parents were in good moods, it would be fine. Trust McGonagall to send a letter at exactly the wrong time though.

James didn't particularly pay attention to the names this year. First of all, he was hungry and that was extremely distracting. Secondly, no family members were being sorted this year. Third, train rides always made him sleepy. Lastly, he was hungry. Yes, he was hungry enough that it deserved to be mentioned twice. His ears perked up at the announcements though.

Nothing seemed too amazing though he had to work to keep a straight face when McGonagall had to mention that the Forbidden Forest was indeed off limits and that Hagrid was in fact not selling tickets to see all the sights and rides. That was one prank that they managed to get away with; their headmistress long suspected that it was the three of them (Fred in particular) but there was never any conclusive proof. Sometimes, the best pranks were the ones where people had to question if it was actually a joke or not. He still couldn't believe how much work they had put into that PR campaign. 3 months of work.

McGonagall cleared her throat. "Finally before we eat," she said with a small smile, "I would like to welcome a foreign exchange student. Miss Melinda Roberts joins us from Salem Academy in Massachusetts and will be a 6th year Ravenclaw. I expect everyone to welcome her with open arms. I'm sure she would appreciate it if her first few weeks her were relatively uneventful." And at that McGonagall glared at Fred who simply put up his hands in defeat. She clapped her hands together and the food appeared suddenly on the table.

James closed his eyes and gestured in front of him, "This is living my friends."

"Um James, I think Fred is already on his 2nd piece of chicken."

He took one glance at Fred and began to stuff his face. The memory of his dad's face this morning at breakfast came to his mind suddenly though. Claire really did hate when he stuffed his face. The pause only lasted a moment before he pushed his glasses on his head and continued the adventure of dinner. Sure, he couldn't see two feet in front of him now but really, all the food was good so it didn't matter what he grabbed. And well, if Claire didn't like it, she was just going to have to deal with it.

Dinner left and desert came. James was actually stuffed for once and ready for bed. But out of the corner of his eye, he saw Claire getting up by herself and leaving the Hall. She saw him looking and winked before the door shut behind her. Now what on earth…

Oh yes, tonight was a good night James thought and left the Hall quicker than he ever had before. Yup, it was good to be back. Now they just needed a grand mystery to solve and this year would be worth it.


	3. Chapter 2: Melinda

_Author's Note: Thanks for everyone who clicked into the next chapter. I'm really hoping Mindy turns out to be an awesome character for y'all. Anyway, here we go._

Chapter 2: In Which Melinda Gets Completely Lost

The first week that you ever spend at Hogwarts always remains in your memory no matter if you are a first year or a sixth year in Melinda Roberts's case. Melinda (or Mindy as she liked to be called by her friends) was a very smart girl and had always been so. In fact, she was positive that she would make the Ravenclaw house quite proud. However, there was something about Hogwarts that simply boggled her mind. Back home in the States, Salem Academy was a sprawling manor whose grounds stretched for acres on end but she still managed to navigate everything quite successfully. Here though, it was a different story.

Mindy grew up in Boston and had thought that she was used to being surrounded by an old culture that went back to the beginning of the country. This castle though had stood for far longer. She was amazed at the winding hallways and ever changing staircases that seemed like they wanted her to get lost or just get out entirely. She had been late to all of her classes the first day and at least one class each day after that. She was never lost in the same part of the castle either. In fact, in the middle of the week she was convinced that she stepped foot in a part of the castle that hadn't been used since the school was founded based on the decorations and amount of dust. But when she retraced her steps to explore later, that part of the castle seemed to never exist.

Needless to say, the transition for her was not going well.

It had started at the beginning of the week at the Welcoming Feast that they put on. She had situated herself at the front of the Great Hall and amused herself by staring at the ceiling. It was a bright night and all the stars were visible but they were all so different in this part of England than she was used to. She had gotten distracted and hadn't even noticed that the table until someone asked her if the seat next to her was taken. She shook her head and was about to introduce herself but the person had already turned to talk to their friend. _Oh well, they look a little too young to be a sixth year anyway, _she thought and turned her attention to the first years coming in.

Her gaze didn't linger on them for too long; a crash distracted everyone including Mindy. She turned to see two rather attractive boys standing on the table (Gryffindor perhaps) and bowing as if this was all planned. She highly doubted that. The headmistress barely even did anything either though perhaps she was just use to it. The rest of the students certainly were as they fell quickly back into hushed conversations.

"Oh they're at it again," whispered the boy sitting next to her to his other friend.

"Seriously, you would think McGonagall would do something about it."

"Well, what could she do? They don't care about house points."

"Yeah, remember two years ago when the Gryffindors finished with a negative number? And they all cheered!"

Mindy raised her eyebrows at the two boys that were stating the opinion of the entire Ravenclaw house based from the glares that the two Gryffindor boys were still getting. _Okay, I can follow the rules; that's fine_ she thought and prepared herself for the questions that were sure to come when the Headmistress introduced her. She was going to at least introduce herself to one person tonight (even though as a rule she was normally quite shy). It was a new school and new school year, there was no reason why she couldn't make herself into whoever she wanted to be.

Her name and year were called and Mindy straightened herself and smiled a little. Instead of the questions she was expected (and probably would have gotten with the Gryffindors), the eyes of the students quickly found the odd person out and stared. Her smile wavered but she powered through and waved a little down the table. Still, she could feel the judgment being passed on her before slowly the rest of the students turned their attention to the food that had appeared suddenly in front of them. It was every introvert's worst nightmare. Mindy sighed and looked down at her plate. Suddenly, her appetite just disappeared.

"Hello, I'm Carrie Donaldson! 6th year as well, oi you move over firsty!" a voice called a voice. Mindy's head shot up to see a mop of curly black hair directly across from her shoving a first year boy out of the way to sit down. Carrie's pale skin was slightly flushed in her cheeks; clearly she had moved from pretty far down the table. When she settled herself, she looked up again and grinned cheerfully, "You must be Melinda correct?"

Mindy smiled slightly back and said, "You can call me Mindy. You really didn't have to move down here if you didn't want to."

Carrie shook her head and sent her curls flying "Don't worry about it. I was just sitting with Marie further down the table; she's in our year too. I tried to get her to come down but she thought you might be a little bit overwhelmed with me!"

"I can kinda see why," Mindy said with a touch of sarcasm without thinking, "Oh crap, I'm…"

But Carrie was laughing, "I know, it's so true! You and Marie both have that same sarcasm so you'll get along splendidly." She shifted a little of her attention to grabbing a few things to put on her plate. Then she continued, "Anyway, I'm muggle born so I know how it is to see everyone knowing each other already. I thought I would come down here since we're going to be sharing a dorm with the others. Though I'm a little disappointed since there's no southern drawl."

Mindy snorted quite loudly which sent Carrie laughing again. "No," she said while grabbing her food, "I grew up in the northeast, but I have some country music if you want to hear the southern accent."

Carrie paused, "You have muggle music that works here?"

"Yeah, my dad helped invent this device. I'm not sure of the magic behind it but I can play CD's that are muggle made," Mindy clarified and looked up to see Carrie staring at her, "What's wrong?"

"I think I see the start of a beautiful relationship," Carrie declared. The two girls giggled and spent the rest of dinner talking about all the music that Carrie had collected when she was at home and had up till now collected dust in her trunk.

If the rest of the girls in the Ravenclaw house in her year had been as nice as Carrie, the week probably would have gone better. Marie was nice enough though extremely quiet. She did have a sense of humor but she let Carrie take over the conversation and Mindy really couldn't tell her opinion on anything. The rest of the girls had seen that Carrie had taken Mindy under her wing and simply ignored the fact that someone else was in their room (apparently Carrie had insulted one of them their first year and it had been Carrie and Marie versus the rest of them since then). Of course, the two girls would have helped Mindy out in her directional struggles but besides a few tips they couldn't do much. Carrie wanted to be a journalist and was taking all the 'easy classes' while Marie wanted to be a healer and was taking just a few different classes from Mindy that they were never traveling together at the same time.

Mindy of course had piled on her classes as she had expected them to be like the Salem Academy. Her personal goal was to become an Auror (America used the same word as England. Apparently, some ties were just never broken) so of course she really couldn't drop any classes from her first few years. Still, the material would have been relatively easy had the professors given her what they were giving everyone else. However, they wanted to make sure she was on the same page and had given her a review homework that covered the first five years of education and was due at the end of the week.

Yes, her life was going to the dogs.

The week had gone by in a blur and Mindy found herself on Thursday night sitting in front of the fireplace in the Ravenclaw Common Room with Carrie and Marie. The other two had finished their work a while ago and were looking through pictures of the summer. Mindy couldn't even bring herself to listen to their conversation; the pile of parchment in front of her was really too much to consider a break.

"Mindy, take a break! It's dinner time and the food waits for no girl, even if she has extra work," Carrie's voice broke through the concentration Mindy was trying to preserve.

"I can't right now, I'm right in the middle of a paragraph. You can go ahead down, I'll meet you there in a few minutes," Mindy mumbled as she rubbed her nose not even noticing the smudge of ink that it left behind.

Carrie shrugged and bounced away shouting something about a rumor of butterbeer to celebrate the upcoming weekend. Mindy looked up just in time to see Marie shake her head and muttered back to her, "Please come down to the hall soon, Carrie is on a sugar high today I think." She then hurried after Carrie (though somehow she made much, much less noise than her counterpart) and left Mindy to herself and her homework.

Slowly, the common room emptied but the lessening of the noise of the students only made matters worse. Mindy sighed and pulled her straight, brown hair easily into a messy bun held in place by an extra quill. The inspiration came back but slowly; every word that Mindy scratched on the page was an effort. Her normal, neat handwriting was quite small and was not even close to filling up the page. She bit her lip tempted to write larger but she just couldn't do it. She lost count of the number of textbooks she opened to get anything else to write but nothing was happening.

Finally, an hour later Mindy pushed back from her desk. "This is just not getting done right now!" she shouted at the page. She looked up and saw two first years that had come back from dinner early. She was just too tired and upset to get embarrassed. Mindy's arms swept around two books that seemed to help more than the others and stormed out of the Common Room with parchment and quills dropping behind her. Perhaps, if she hurried, there would be time to read during dessert.

After quite a number of turns and three staircases later, she was completely lost again with no one around to give directions. She looked out the window, saw that she was in another tower entirely and shouted once again, "Fuck!" Mindy spun around with her head down and almost ready to cry.

Unfortunately, that turn made her crash right into an actual person.

The books thumped onto the ground and she fell down quite literally on her butt. The other person, a guy she could now see, had managed to brace himself in time but had stepped backwards into a suit of armor. It had begun to fall but he somehow managed to awkwardly embrace the metal in a hug that looked rather pointy. The two of them looked at each other for a moment before the boy said, "Well, I certainly didn't intend on getting to second base with a suit of armor tonight."

"Well, I didn't really want to get bruises on my butt either," Mindy huffed back. The silence lasted for a minute longer and the two started to laugh. Mindy broke out her wand (thankfully uninjured despite being in her back pocket) and gave a little wave. The armor stood back up and the boy was freed from his hug. He stopped to push his glasses back onto his face properly then reached out his hand to help her up which she graciously accepted.

Once she did, Mindy found herself looking pretty far up. Granted, she was only 5'2" on a good day but he had to be at least a foot taller than her. His auburn hair was pretty messed up but she had a strange feeling that he worked very hard to get it that way in the morning. He bent down once again, gathered up her books, and held them out silently barely holding back a laugh that she could easily see in his brown eyes that stared directly into her blue ones. She snatched them away quickly before he noticed her staring. "Thanks, I can't believe how incredibly stupid I was," she said with a slight grimace.

He chuckled, "Everyone has their days. Of course I never do." He said the last part with such a straight face that she began laughing again. He looked confused for a second before he chuckled, "Okay, maybe I do. Still, I'm curious as to why a Ravenclaw is right near the Gryffindor tower."

"What gave me away; the fact that I'm carrying the armful of books, the quill in my hair, or the American accent?" Mindy laughed before the rest of his sentence dawned on her, "Wait, that's on the other side of the castle. Shoot, I just wanted dinner. You know what? I'm just done." She sighed and leaned back on the wall only to slide completely down to the floor.

The boy looked like he wanted to laugh again but resisted which Mindy was grateful for. He sat down next to her with a grace only an athlete could pull off. "Well, by now you've completely missed dinner, but I could always direct you down to the kitchens," he said with a small grin.

Mindy narrowed her eyes, "What you can just go down there?"

"Erm, not exactly. But I can tell you what to do. You know which way the kitchens are correct?" he asked. Mindy thought about it and pointed in a random direction. The boy just started laughing at her again, "You know what, I'll just take you down."

"You really don't have…" but she was cut off by her stomach rumbling.

"Nonsense, allow me!" he hopped up and held out his hand once again. Mindy sighed and took it. To her utter dismay, she found that the boy was taking her in the total opposite direction of where she pointed when he had asked. _Well he must think I'm a total idiot_ she thought. At least she had Carrie and Marie for some friends since this boy was clearly going to hate her after this.

The walked for a minute in silence before Mindy slowly said, "Well, I'm Mindy. And your name is?"

The boy looked at her quite oddly. He said, "I'm James. Don't you recognize me?"

"Should I?" she asked but considering the look on his face, she did try to think back. Yes, he did look rather familiar. She had seen him recently. Oh, how could she forgotten? "You're one of the boys who stood up on the table at the Welcoming Feast. A lot of Ravenclaws weren't happy about that. They thought it was really too showy."

James opened his mouth about to say something but shook his head and started again, "Most Ravenclaws don't appreciate the fine art of trouble making. What did you think?" He looked at her hopefully with that stupid sideways grin that was apparently his thing. He was doing it enough tonight.

"Well, I thought it was pretty funny, though I'm assuming you really do like the attention," she laughed a little and glanced over at James. He chuckled back and nodded so she continued, "I'm just not used to it. According to everyone at my table, you do get in trouble a lot. At Salem Academy, there's a kind of zero tolerance policy. So really, there's no big pranks ever allowed."

James looked a little horrified. "That sounds like a dictatorship."

"Well we prefer the word democracy if you don't mind," she said with another snort. She hadn't laughed this much all week. Well, really since she had left America. "Besides, school is supposed to be for building character and preparing you for the real world. Well, at least according to my old professors."

He waved his hand dismissively, "We have time for all of that after we graduate. Now is the time to have fun. Now the kitchens are just down these steps in the basement." He ambled quite easily down the stairs taking two sometimes three at a time with practiced ease. It was all Mindy could do to keep up and not fall down to embarrass herself further. James reached up to a painting with a bowl of fruit but stopped suddenly and turned around to her, "Hold on, what's your middle name?"

"Why?"

"Curiosity killed the cat and whatnot."

"It's Jennifer if you must know."

James burst out into laughter, "Finally! This is awesome! I can call you MJ!"

Mindy groaned, "You can't call me that; it's like Spiderman really." She bit her lip hoping that he understood that reference as she was definitely not in a mood to explain why muggles liked it when a teenage boy acted like a spider to catch bad guys.

"That's exactly why! My dad bought me a little figure when I was little and I've loved it ever since. Now I finally get to call a girl that!" he was beaming at her.

She sighed, "It's not the same names. Besides, literally everyone calls me Mindy."

"Well, I'm not just everyone!" he said with a hint of triumph in his tone.

She raised her one eyebrow skeptically, "Oh really? I have yet to see anything that makes you special other than the fact that you seem to think it yourself."

For a second, Mindy could have sworn that James looked completely baffled by what she said, but she must have been imagining it as the half smile was back in full force. He turned to face the painting again and tickled the pear, "Are you ready… MJ?"

Before, she could say anything, the painting swung open to reveal a maze filled with a whirlwind of activity. There were rows and rows of tables that had tons of leftovers from dinner. Little house elves ran around levitating the food and making it disappear (Mindy just hoped that they could use it next time and didn't throw it away). The high vaulted ceilings were illuminated by the ovens that were still on and flickering brightly. The smells from all the different food mixed together to form a delightful mixture that reminded Mindy of her home at Christmas time. "This is… amazing," Mindy gasped as she stepped a little further into the kitchen careful to avoid stepping on an elf.

She turned and saw that James looked a little puzzled. He asked, "Don't you have things like this in America? I mean, the kitchens are cool but considering everything else in the castle, it's really pretty normal."

Mindy sighed, "I've been constantly in a state of shock all week. Salem really doesn't have the same feel to it. They've been incorporating muggle technology so witches and wizards can blend in better. Most of the Manor has electricity and we even have our own version of emails. I mean, everything uses magic instead of the muggle equivalent but still…"

"If everything still uses magic, then why… Oh, Winky!" James was completely cut off from his question with the arrival of a smaller than normal house elf (Mindy couldn't have been happier at the interruption). She had a small dress on and looked up at James with a sort of devotion that Mindy couldn't help but giggle at. James stuck his tongue out at Mindy then said to Winky, "I'll just have the usual please. Mindy, what do you want?"

"Um, the same?" she asked. Winky nodded and scurried away. James started to walk away towards a table in the back that was set up family style. It was circular and fit at least 10 chairs around the whole thing. "So I take it you're a regular in here," Mindy said as she sat down at one of the seats. Though the seat appeared to be wooden, it molded to her body as soon as she had sat down and was quite literally the most comfortable seat she had ever felt.

"Yeah," said James sitting down next to her and leaned back, "Fred and I always come down here usually like at midnight or so. Still, I don't think you'll be able to finish 'the usual.'"

"Considering I haven't eaten all day, I think I just might."

James was stunned, "How in the world did you manage that?"

"The teachers are giving me a ton of work to make sure I know everything that you were taught the first five years. It's all due by tomorrow so there is a very good chance I'm not sleeping tonight. I had no time to eat today."

"Well, I'm probably not sleeping tonight either," James said. This time, his smile was tight and he instantly looked more distant than he had all night.

"Why…" but this time her question was cut off by Winky's arrival. She had two huge bags in her hand and gave one to each of them. Mindy looked inside and counted at least 5 subs, 3 bags of chips, 6 bottles of butterbeer, and a tub of what looked to be chocolate pudding. "I see why you get this all to go already," Mindy muttered.

"Well, this will all be gone by morning for me," James said quite seriously, "But I don't have the time to eat here. Places to go, people to see, teachers to terrorize and so on. Are you going to be alright getting back to the Ravenclaw Tower by yourself?"

"Probably not, the castle wants to get rid of me I think," she laughed as she got up and stretched.

James did his sideways grin and raised his arms up in the air. He shouted, "Oh beautiful Hogwarts castle, let it be known that MJ Roberts…"

"Mindy."

"MJ is not an intruder and means us no harm. So please stop trying to get her lost because she doesn't want to lose any more house points." James flourished his arms in a circle then brought them back down. He grinned at her, "See; now you won't get lost anymore. I bet you 10 galleons."

Mindy snorted, "Fine, you're on." They walked to the portrait, waved good bye to all the House Elves and stepped out into the corridor. Mindy stopped once she realized that they had to go in opposite directions and said, "Hey James, thanks for tonight. It's been quite a week and that was pretty nice of you."

"No worries," he said, "Hogwarts is supposed to be a home to all witches and wizards. You'll see; not everything is as bad as you think." He turned and started to jog away, "See you later, MJ!"

Mindy shook her head, too tired to argue, "Bye James." She took a deep breath and began her journey back to the tower. She didn't get lost a single time.

When the portrait opened, Carrie and Marie were waiting for her. Carrie started to ask her where she had been and Marie dug in the bag to see exactly what food she had received. She told them about getting lost and managing to find her way down to the kitchens. Finally, when they each had a sandwich and butterbeer in front of them, she said, "Yeah, the only reason why I could find anything was because of this guy. He was really sweet; I didn't get his last name or year though."

Carrie paused in eating, "I know basically everyone in this school. What was his first name?"

"Well, his name was James and he was a Gryffindor."

Marie's eyes widened, "Auburn hair and glasses?"

"Yeah, actually."

Carrie snorted, "You just made the acquaintance of James Potter."

Mindy stared at her, "Am I supposed to know that name?"

Carrie started to laugh hard enough that she had to work to stay in her chair and not on the floor. Marie rolled her eyes and said, "He's the son of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley."

Mindy paused. "Oh," she said. The three girls looked at each other and began to laugh again. Carrie really did fall off her chair this time. Despite laughing, Mindy couldn't help but feel a little bit stupid. No wonder he had looked at her funny when she didn't realize who he was. Granted, he wasn't famous and his parents were but still…

_Well that's one person who won't be talking to me again_ she thought and slowly but surely turned her attention to the work she still had left.


	4. Chapter 3: James

_Author's Note: After an unintended hiatus, I'm back. Thank you so much to my reviewers, it means a lot to me. Please don't be afraid to give me constructive criticism. Also I'm looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested and I'm still looking for a nice picture for the summary thing. Also, I'm American. I'm ignorant and I've been using our measurement system. I apologize but I'm probably gonna keep using it for the sake of consistency. Anywho, onwards. _

Chapter 3: In Which James Receives a Pleasant Surprise

It was morning already. The rest of the Gryffindors were busy prepping ready for class and getting breakfast before it was too late. James, on the other hand, was sitting idly in front of the fireplace in the Common Room. The bag containing the food from the kitchen was sitting on the floor completely empty except for a half-finished butterbeer in his hand. There were no circles under his eyes and his clothes looked relatively clean but despite the outward appearance, he really did feel like crap. Arguing with a person for half the night did that to you, especially when she went to bed at midnight but he couldn't sleep for anything.

"You realize dad would give you The Look right now if he saw you," called a voice from over top his head.

James rolled his head back to see Albus staring down at him. He snorted; Albus looked like he was the one who had stayed up all night from the sleepy look in his eyes that never went away before noon really. He reached up and rubbed Al's head then got up and stretched. "It was a long night. He would understand."

"Doubt it," Albus frowned as he attempted to get his hair to lay down flat. It somehow now looked like a halo was surrounding his head. James did not feel nice enough this morning to tell him. "You know, you should get Fred up. I haven't seen him yet. He's worse than me and that's terrible." Al patted down his hair some more than turned to leave.

"Oi, you know we're sixteen. We really don't need you as our mom away from mom."

"Except I really do considering mom gives me a monthly salary to make sure you two survive until she sees that you're ready to be mature adults," Al muttered and walked away.

"Wait, really?" James asked but Al just waved. James stared after his younger brother and shook his head. There was no way that was true. Was it? He wasn't that bad. Well sometimes. He always got by though so that's what counted. James threw the bottle into the food bag then sprinted to the stairs taking them two at a time to get to the 6th year boys' dorm. Sure enough, Fred was still sleeping in his bed that was conveniently located next to his own, currently completely made bed.

"Aguamenti," James whispered and a stream of water shot from his wand hitting Fred square in the face. Fred shot up and stood on his bed gasping. James laughed and went into the bathroom to wash his face; that had to be the best spell taught so far this year.

"You are so evil," Fred groaned and he stepped into the bathroom and started to brush his teeth at the sink next to James. It seemed as though everyone was having a bad hair day; the water made Fred's fire red hair stick completely back from his face like there was a huge gust of wind blowing right in his face.

"Where is Zach? He's usually the one who gets you up," asked James as he took a wash cloth and rubbed his face all over trying to wake himself up for the rest of the day. It was going to be rough; he hadn't pulled an all-nighter since exam time last year. He had stayed up for 46 hours and slept close to that amount as soon as his head hit the pillow at his house. Thank God it was Friday and Quidditch hadn't started yet.

Fred scratched his nose and thought. James rolled his eyes; Fred could hardly remember anything if he wasn't totally awake yet. "Oh yeah!" he said spitting toothpaste all over James' face. He glared but Fred just grinned and spat the rest out in the sink. "I think before Zach left he mentioned something about Greenhouse 4 this morning so that meant he had to leave."

James groaned; that greenhouse for herbology was the furthest away from the school, "That little prick couldn't even wake me up."

Fred went back into the bedroom and James followed, "To be fair, you're usually the first one up. He probably thought you were flying or something. So don't blame him all the time."

James sighed and the two of them dressed in silence. He wasn't actually mad at Zach, in fact he hadn't been mad at him since their 3rd year when Zach had sided with Al instead of him in some stupid argument. Granted, he was pretty sure Al was right in that one particular instance, but it was the loyalty that mattered.

He glanced down at his watch; he could still get breakfast if he ran down to the greenhouse the rest of the way. James put all of his books for the day in his bag and the two of them headed downstairs. There was hardly anyone left in the Common Room at this point; everyone took breakfast very seriously when there were house elves involved. This morning though, James would be lucky if he got a piece of toast before he had to leave. It was all Claire's fault…

"So," said Fred as the two of them went down the tower and waited for one of the staircases to swing around to their side, "How is your darling Claire? And who's side can I put the winning tally? I left when the two of you had resorted to calling each other 1st year insults. Seriously, douche canoe?"

James grimaced, "It's like you can read my mind. Better put the tally on her side this time. That makes it what, 10-5 to her just for this year?

"12-3. I'm counting the train ride hers considering how weird you acted until you made up. Also two nights ago was definitely her win."

"But she said I was right!"

"Then when you left, she immediately started saying how easily she could twist the famous James Potter around her finger."

James ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "I honestly couldn't even tell you how the freaking fight started last night. I'm convinced she just wants attention at this point. I mean, seriously, why do it in the Common Room where every single person can hear it?"

"Phrasing."

"Fred."

The stairs swung around and the two stepped on and climbed down silently. Fred finally said, "You know, I'm not an expert with the whole relationship thing, but are you sure you actually want to stay with her? She's turning your life to hell."

"You just want to win the betting pool."

"It's up to 200 galleons. But that's besides the point. It's ten times worse this year and we've only been in school a week," Fred glanced over but James didn't want to respond. He knew that Fred was right, he really did, but there were those times when Claire was so nice, just like the girl he asked out last year. Plus, he had a date for the Yule Ball; he didn't want the horror story that his father told him to ever come true. He shook his head; it was so easy to get into the Emo Potter mood.

Fred cleared his throat, "Well, new topic kind of. Let's talk about where you went when you had the half hour break in fighting and you came back into the Common Room with a huge grin on your face. Claire was so pissed about that, let me tell you."

James laughed, "Good." They stepped off the staircase and head down the hallway towards the Hall. He paused, wondering if he should said anything. _It's Fred, I tell him everything, its fine_ he thought and shook his head. "Well," he said with a small grin, "I may have met Miss USA last night."

His cousin stopped dead in his tracks, "James. You didn't. Did you ask her out for me?"

He rolled his eyes, "God no, she was completely lost. She wanted to get to dinner somehow got to the Gryffindor tower. So I showed her the kitchens. I think she's pretty nice, kind of sarcastic. She had no clue who I was though…"

Fred completely lost it and bent over laughing. James whacked him on the head. It wasn't that funny. "Sorry, sorry," Fred wheezed and started to walk again but still chuckled, "That must have been a blow to your ego."

"Yeah well," James started and trailed off. Yes, he was used to people knowing who he was by sight. He usually liked the attention; after all he and Fred spent the past 5 going on 6 years trying to create something that was totally separate from their parent's identities. But last night when MJ had no clue and was just treating him like a normal person… it was different. It was nice in a way, especially considering how most of Gryffindor had an inside scoop on his relationship at all times thanks to Claire and her opportunistic and loud fighting.

The two cousins opened the doors into the Great Hall. As expected, most of the Hall was completely full but none of the people in his class were still there. He leaned down at the table to scope out what food he could grab and eat while on the run while Fred managed to sit down and already had a mouthful of scrambled eggs. James sighed, grabbed a piece of toast and tried to layer on as much peanut butter on it as possible. He was just about to get set off when he heard a familiar laugh and looked over at the Ravenclaw table.

There was MJ Roberts laughing with two other girls who backs were turned towards him.

James frowned and thought back to the past week. She had to be in his class, he was pretty sure she had snuck in the back the whole week. So why on earth was she still here? She was a Ravenclaw, those types definitely did not like being late. Unless… James groaned. She really had no clue where Greenhouse 4 was. It was the only possible explanation. "Hey Fred, watch and be jealous," James said and walked over to the Ravenclaw table.

As expected, he got quite a few glares from the older Ravenclaws that were still annoyed at the negative points a few years back (it wasn't even their house, they could get over it). James plastered on a smile though that turned into a real one when he saw that MJ was actually talking to one of the only Ravenclaw girls that he could stand, Carrie. Thank Merlin that meant MJ definitely was not like Claire. Just like he thought. As for the other girl… "Why good morning, Carrie, MJ, how are you? And Rose, what on earth are you doing here? Al ditch you for once?" he asked in a very pleasant tone. At least, he thought it was a pleasant tone.

MJ muttered, "It's Mindy." Like that was ever going to happen.

Rose sighed and pointed back toward the Gryffindor table. Sitting there, next to Al quite calmly was Scorpius Malfoy. Now that would explain why Rose was over here instead of at her usual place; glued to Al's side. He raised an eyebrow, "Now that's just weird. Maybe Al needs help with potions?"

"Al always needs help with potions but Scorpius normally wouldn't even step foot near there. No one is even protesting! There's something going on here. Al is hatching some diabolical plan that is going to end badly for me. I know it," Rose grumbled and put her head on her arms. Clearly, she was done talking.

Carrie cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes, "Got all the family drama settled for now? Then Potter, what are you doing on probably the only end of Hogwarts that doesn't bow to your every whim."

"Always a wonderful way with words, especially this early in the morning Carrie. Anyway, MJ, you're in herbology now correct?"

MJ sighed once again (dear God she could rival Al in that department) and said, "Yes, I am. But I really do know where the greenhouses are. I still have 5 minutes before I have to leave."

James snorted, "You mean you should have left five minutes ago. It's a 20 minute walk down to Greenhouse 4 and we have 10 minutes left."

Carrie's eyes widened, "Mindy, he's actually being straight for once. No wonder we couldn't find Marie this morning. You have to go now."

"Well shit," MJ groaned and got up quickly almost knocking over the bench in the process earning quite a few glares from the rest of the Ravenclaws. She waved back but Carrie was too busy scolding the rest of her house to pay attention. James grinned; MJ certainly found herself a protector. Then he realized that Mindy was leaving him in the dust.

He jogged to keep up with her, "So, you're planning on running the whole way down?"

"Yes, do you think you can keep up?"

James looked down at her. She was a solid foot shorter but she didn't seem to have any trouble with the current pace. "Ha, of course I can," he grinned and ran a little faster at the pace that would get them there in time.

They got to the front door and James pushed it open to reveal an unusually sunny day. It was early in September and the grounds were still a bright green. The air was clear enough that the lake could easily be seen and James swore he saw a tentacle come out of the depths. On crisp days like today, he couldn't help but run faster. MJ had no trouble keeping step; in fact she threw her head back and laughed, "I've missed running so much! I haven't done it since I've been in England."

He smiled at her enthusiasm. He didn't see much of it this early in the morning from anyone except Lily. "Oh, you run? Do you play sports? Quidditch maybe?"

She shuddered, "Dear God no. I hate heights though I do love Quidditch. I just watch from the sidelines. Running is just something I do for fun." James' mouth dropped in surprise. She didn't like flying. That was like… That was impossible. How could someone hate heights and flying? No, no it wasn't possible. But yet, she was totally serious. "Oh come on now, someone else at this school has to hate heights too," she said with a grin.

"Yeah, but I usually don't like them."

"You've talked to me for only about an hour total now. How can you be sure you like me?"

"Instincts," he said with confidence and she laughed again. Any other person and James would have hated it. They would have been making fun of him. Perhaps, she still was. But he could tell it wasn't cruel. She was just genuinely a happy person, something he was sure he liked. "You know, if it wasn't for me, you would have gotten lost again and I would have lost my bet already. I don't usually lose that quickly."

Their strides got a little faster but neither was out of breath. "Well," she said, "I figured that with the whole numbering system, Greenhouse 4 would be right beyond 3. I guess I was wrong."

"When they redid Hogwarts after the Final Battle, they put all the dangerous and valuable plants into Greenhouse 4 to try to avoid anyone stealing them or whatever. Apparently there was something with mandrakes and gillyweed. Professor Longbottom had quite a bit of knowledge as to what plants they needed to put in there apparently." James strongly suspected for the longest time, however, that his father, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione had given him ideas.

"I see," she said. They continued at their current pace. "Listen, about last night…"

"Did you pull an all-nighter too?"

She grimaced, "Unfortunately yes. But I did get everything done so that's something."

"Congrats."

"Please, don't die from excitement," she said and James couldn't help but laugh. "But seriously, thanks for helping me. And I'm sorry if I didn't recognize you at first. I mean, I couldn't tell if you were offended or something…"

"Not offended, it was just different. I wish I could say I was kidding when I tell you that I'm a pretty big deal around here."

She snorted, "No you don't. You love it."

James grinned, "Okay fine, maybe I do like it a little bit. It was weird that you didn't know. But it's okay. I mean, I don't care. I… am rambling. All-nighters are not my strong point."

MJ looked at him for a second. James looked back. Her face was unreadable like she was trying to decide something about him. It took a second, but the blank face turned into a smile. "You know," she said as they turned onto a path that took them towards the Forbidden Forest, "I don't believe you're as bad as the other Ravenclaws make out."

"Is that an actual compliment?"

"Why I believe it is," she laughed once again and this time James laughed with her. They fell into a comfortable silence as they got closer to the greenhouse. It had to be twice the size as the other 3 greenhouses but somehow the inventory was a whole lot smaller. Some of the plants were just bigger, others just needed more room. Nevertheless, it was intimidating all the same. Only 6th years and above were allowed in unless they were with Longbottom. Not even James had attempted to break in; the automatic penalty for even being around the greenhouse was a suspension.

James and MJ sprinted toward the door just as Professor Longbottom was getting there to close it. "Cutting it close, Mr. Potter," he glared at the two of them before heading back to the front of the room. Neville Longbottom was perhaps the kindest man that James knew outside the classroom, but inside the classroom when it came to anything that was remotely connected to punishment, he said that he liked to channel one Professor Snape and scare his students just as he was scared as a kid. James thought it was a bit crazy.

James glanced around the room and saw that unfortunately the only two places left was one seat next to Zach and the other next to Claire. There was no way he was going to make MJ sit next to that particular time bomb. He looked over and saw MJ biting her lip as she thought about the seating choices. At least he could make this particular choice for her, "Hey you should sit next to Zach. He's cool. I'm going to have to sit next to my girlfriend."

MJ snorted, "Again your enthusiasm astounds me." She patted his arm in sympathy and went towards the back to sit next to Zach. That left James to trudge to the front where Claire was chatting with her friends though he knew that she had seen what just happened.

He slid into the seat and began chomping on the toast that he still had left. If she could go 5 minutes without talking to him this morning…

"So I see you met the new girl this morning," Claire whispered with her eyes narrowed.

"We were both late and going to the same place. There's no need to make another fucking scene," he whispered back and pulled out his textbook actually intending on using it in this period for once.

"No scene needed," she muttered back and pulled his arm close to her. She flipped her hair back just enough to give herself an excuse to look in the back of the room and immediately frowned. James turned and glanced back to see what she was looking at. Zach and MJ were currently cracking up at something that he had written in his notebook, probably one of the cartoons he was fantastic at making of their school life. Strangly accurate too. God, he would have given anything to be back there.

"Mr. Potter, do I need to give you a detention already?" Longbottom's voice called from the plant he was currently standing at (a variant of Devil's Snare according to the picture he had turned to in his textbook).

James was really in no mood to play nice. "No sir," he said with a forced smile, "I just thought I saw a toad go by my desk. I guess I was wrong."

The entire class stared at him utterly confused at what they thought was going to be a joke. Longbottom simply tightened his lips (to either keep from yelling or from smiling James would never know) and turned back to the plant. James turned to Claire and muttered, "Truce till the end of the period. That's it. I'm done talking."

Claire nodded and the two of them actually listened for a change. At least, James tried to. He really did. But he knew that MJ and Zach were not paying attention from the muffled chuckles and he could feel the glares coming from Claire's friends. Now, if only the tables had more than 2 seats. Or what if he just made the tables attack. That would be hilarious. The first person they would attack would be Claire then they would form their own military. It would be martial law declared in Greenhouse 4 by the very chairs and tables they thought to oppress.

"Class dismissed. Essay due next Friday. Have a nice weekend everyone!" Longbottom said quite cheerfully. James blinked. Okay, maybe he wasn't paying as much attention as he originally thought. Still, a table army would be an epic prank. Something to consider in the long run.

He felt a tug at his arm. "Hey James," said Claire. James sighed and looked over at Claire who had packed up to leave already. She bit her lip as he put his books away and continued in a soft voice, "Look, it's been a rough week. Everyone goes through those once in a while. Can we just have quiet time tonight? Me and you, just like last year?"

"I sense a trap," James said. It was probably a bad idea but at this point, he really couldn't care.

"No trap, just you and I. If that is what you still want."

He looked at her. Unlike MJ, he could look at her straight in the eye. Claire looked particularly pretty today. Her hair was pulled back and she looked innocent for once in her life. Maybe he was just being hopeful, but perhaps there was something in her wanting to make up. "Come on," he said with a small grin. See, this is why he still dated her. He put his arm around her waist as they walked out of the Greenhouse and up the path behind most of their other classmates.

No one was around them for one glorious second. Claire laughed to herself and snuggled into him further. She never full out just laughed, it was always a little a giggle here or there. Not like MJ. MJ sounded as though she could laugh until she cried. Speaking of which, where did they go?

"James!" Zach called out breaking the silence of the Hogwarts grounds. There they were. James and Claire turned around to see Zach and MJ still laughing to themselves as they jogged to catch up to James and Claire. Claire slid her arm around James. He didn't have to look down to know that she was frowning. Merlin, he had talked to MJ twice. It was as if he couldn't have any friends who were girls now.

MJ was all smiles though. "Hey guys," she said still laughing, "You must be Claire! I'm Mindy though of course you already knew that. James told me all about you."

"Of course, how nice to meet you," said Claire cheerfully. James raised his eyebrow; despite how happy she sounded, her arm gripped even tighter around his waist. It was kind of uncomfortable really. He looked over at Zach but Zach just shook his head a little and mouthed, 'Wait.'

MJ said quickly, "Well, Zach says that you have Ancient Runes next as well. I would love to go with you; I've been getting lost all week! And maybe you could answer a few questions? I'm sure you know way more than I do. I would love some insight on the shopping around here."

Claire didn't answer but James could feel a lot of the tension leave her arm and finally she let go. "Yeah, I'm sure it's rough not only transferring schools but a different country too. Come on then, we'll be late otherwise. Bye James!"

The two girls left and started to walk a little faster to get to the tower where Ancient Runes was held. Within a few steps, MJ was waving her arms in a story and Claire was giggling like mad. James and Zach stood still just watching for a few seconds. There was no way that James would even attempt to understand girls. He turned to Zach, "What just happened?"

Zach snorted and started walking. He started, "Well I told her what happened last night with Claire. What was the official tally mark?"

"Claire won."

"Damn, remind me to give Lily 5 galleons. Anyway, she felt bad and told me about how you helped her find the kitchens. So sweet."

"Shut it."

"Anyway, Mindy said she wanted to help you and I told her how much Claire wanted to meet her. So not only did she take a furious Claire off your hands but I think she gave you some brownie points for the future."

James said nothing and ran his hand through his hair. It was such a nice day and they had to head back into the castle which sucked. At least they didn't have potions today. They would really be bad. They would have to go into the dungeons and there were no windows in there. But the tables were okay in there. Maybe they could form an alliance with the tables in the Greenhouses. Seriously, why hadn't they done a table army before?

"Earth to James. Please come in."

James shook his head, "What?"

Zach groaned. James looked around; they were almost to the castle already, he must have really been day dreaming. Zach continued, "Anyway, like I was saying, you could use Mindy to your advantage."

"What? I thought it would be bad; wouldn't Claire think I was cheating or something stupid?"

Zach laughed, "God, everyone knows you are probably the most honest person outside of Hufflepuff. Nah, if you're friends with Mindy, Claire is going to have to step up her game or else you might break up with her."

James frowned, "But I'm not going to break up with Claire."

"Not according to Lily's betting pool."

"I hate my family and friends. I want to be isolated forever."

Zach snorted, "Fat chance." They opened the door to the castle and went inside. James couldn't help but wonder. MJ certainly wouldn't care about him that much but what would Claire do? Or he could just let the girls figure out their thing. That would be best; girls were a different species that dealt with their own. He had more important things to worry about.

He had to prepare for a table rebellion.


End file.
